Journal
MOLECULAR CELL
Volume 72, Issue 3, Pages 541-+Publisher
CELL PRESS
DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2018.08.046
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- NIGMS NIH HHS [R01 GM037554, R00 GM120457, R01 GM062357, K99 GM120457, R01 GM118524, F32 GM113297, R35 GM131922] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Numerous classes of riboswitches have been found to regulate bacterial gene expression in response to physiological cues, offering new paths to antibacterial drugs. As common studies of isolated riboswitches lack the functional context of the transcription machinery, we here combine single-molecule, biochemical, and simulation approaches to investigate the coupling between co-transcriptional folding of the pseudoknot-structured preQ(1) riboswitch and RNA polymerase (RNAP) pausing. We show that pausing at a site immediately downstream of the riboswitch requires a ligand-free pseudoknot in the nascent RNA, a precisely spaced sequence resembling the pause consensus, and electrostatic and steric interactions with the RNAP exit channel. While interactions with RNAP stabilize the native fold of the riboswitch, binding of the ligand signals RNAP release from the pause. Our results demonstrate that the nascent riboswitch and its ligand actively modulate the function of RNAP and vice versa, a paradigm likely to apply to other cellular RNA transcripts.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available